Star Trek: The Original Series – Mirror, Mirror

Go ahead and roll your eyes, but it’s been a whole week since I’ve written anything “Trek” related and my final frontier itch needed to be scratched. Don’t visualize that, you’ll have nightmares.

“Mirror, Mirror” is an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series that introduces the concept of parallel universes. For those of you who haven’t read my previous articles or are sci-fi illiterate, the theory of parallel universes goes on to say that anything that can happen, does happen, but along different planes of existences that we cannot see. For every action that requires more than one choice, multiple realities branch off from the decision you made into invisible realities based on the decisions you didn’t make but could have. Let’s put it this way…

Have it on?

I’m thinking of a number between one and five. Pick one. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Did you say three? Let’s say you did. In your universe you chose three. In a parallel universe you chose one. In another you chose two. In another you chose four. In another you chose five. In another you chose to close this article after insulting my manhood. There would be millions upon billions of parallel universes out there if this theory proved to be true.

With that said, “Mirror, Mirror” is an episode where a transporter accident switches the landing parties of two universes. The casanova of smut we all know and love and three others beam up from a planet where an ion storm is raging. In a parallel universe, Kirk and three others are doing the exact same thing at the exact same time. The ion storm causes a fluctuation in the space-time continuum, which not only causes pandas to be sad everywhere but the transporter beams to cross. The Kirk and company we’re used to seeing ends up on an Enterprise where corruption and power reigns supreme. They witness right away the brutality their beloved alternate Spock (who sports a goatee) inflicts on the transporter operator for almost losing the landing party, completely unaware of the transfer.

Don’t piss off a Vulcan with a goatee.

Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura have to pretend to be savages as they try to find a way back to their reality. This episode opened the door for other stories that appeared in other Star Trek shows like Deep Space Nine and Enterprise. There was also a book by Diane Duane called “Dark Mirror” which took place in the Star Trek: The Next Generation era. It was also consequently my first Star Trek book and got me into writing short stories. Later, William Shatner, Judith Reeves-Stevens, and Garfield Reeves-Stevens developed a series of books that told the story of Shatner’s resurrection from the movie “Star Trek: Generations” as a Borg of all things, which later led into a series of books involving the Enterprise E and the parallel universe from “Mirror, Mirror.” For those of you interested, lookup “Dark Mirror”, “The Return”, “Avenger”, “Spectre”, “Dark Victory”, and “Preserver”. “Dark Mirror” is a book by itself but the rest are all tied together in one long adventure.

If you see this symbol, you’re pretty much screwed.

All in all, this was one of the better “Trek” episodes. It gave us a look at what we could become should we ever fall victim to total corruption and greed. When freedom and individual rights are taken away. When money and assassination are used as a means to advance in rank. It’s not a pleasant thought.

Apparently tailors have talent in this parallel universe.

Whether you like science fiction, Star Trek, or want to see what Leonard Nimoy looks like in a goatee, give this episode a whirl.